And, the feed went for a shtt right as the Rock were about to cruise to the win.

No excuse for not dropping double digits on NE and Bold last week, but, they got it done this time. Needed win. Coupled with the Buffalo Whats losing to a West team as well, this is a decent night so far!

And, wouldnt you know it, the last few minutes of Garbage time in the bandits game is streaming flawlessly, and other than Garbler mangling names, the commentators actually know what the hell they are calling.

Brock Sorensen is as frustrated as the rest of his Toronto Rock teammates.

The defender has performed very well this season, as has his mates in front of goaltender Nick Rose, but the team is on a three-game losing streak, one it hopes to snap when it faces the New England Black Wolves in Uncasville, Conn. on Friday (7:30 p.m.).

The teams met on Sunday at the Air Canada Centre with New England pulling out an 8-7 overtime win on Kevin Crowley’s third goal of the afternoon. Toronto held the Black Wolves to one goal in the second 30 minutes of regulation but Sorensen was lamenting the early deficit the Rock had built.

“We still have these slow starts,” he said. “We’re giving too many away early and climbing from behind.

“We can’t do that. We need to find a way to chip away early and to limit their runs.”

Sorensen, 28, is in his sixth NLL season and fourth with the Rock after two seasons with the Minnesota (now Georgia) Swarm. The Peterborough native is not difficult to spot on the floor being the tallest player on the team at six-foot-six.

He is not normally featured in the Rock’s transition game, having scored only 24 career NLL goals, but he may have scored the team’s goal of the year against the Black Wolves, grabbing his own rebound on a shot in the third quarter, taking a couple of steps to the back of the net, and reaching out to slam the ball into the net past New England goaltender Aaron Bold.

“He made a pretty good save,” he said. “And I was in a good position to use my reach.”

The defensive effort and the play of Rock goaltender Nick Rose, who made 51 saves, wasn’t lost on head coach Matt Sawyer.

“(Rose) was outstanding, along with the defence,” he said. “But we just didn’t find a way to pull that out.”

The Rock will need to find a way to beat Bold consistently and in more conventional fashion at the Mohegan Sun Arena. Bold was stellar with 51 saves of his own and was particularly good when Rock forwards were getting to the front of the net. Many of Toronto’s goals came from outside shots.

The playoff picture in the NLL east remains tight. The Black Wolves (6-4) lead the Buffalo Bandits by a half-game with the Rock (5-6) trailing the Rochester Knighthawks by a half-game for the third playoff spot.

I didn't notice Kri get injured on Friday night, so I'm not sure what's up with him.

As for Dan Taylor, I see he has 36 points in 16 career games. I'm not sure what his acquisition means, but it looks like he might be a guy who's simply a victim of the numbers game in Saskatchewan. What did the Rock trade to get him?

Dan Taylor is a solid player who can absolutely make an impact offensively. He's not just some guy who goes around setting picks. In fact, that's probably his weakness if anything and why he's not getting played as much as Shattler/Keenan. He's a smart player and has a solid shot despite the lowly goal totals. The reason his offensive numbers don't look very impressive is because of his usage rate. The Rush offense is 3 righties-2 lefties, designed to give the righties clean, uncontested shots near the crease or around the center of the field, and the lefties are meant to move the ball around and act as a distraction for Mark Matthews to do his thing. Shattler and Keenan are just much better than Taylor at doing that, and even in the few games Taylor does dress he'll barely get any minutes. This is also why Adam Jones saw a drop in production in the Rush system, since he needs to be a primary ball handler and that just wasn't going to happen with Matthews, who focuses on swinging the ball over to the righties or going to the net himself, leaving Jones with lower percentage shots. Taylor is in a similar situation, but the Rock don't have the "problem" of one player being so much better than everyone else it's not even funny and building their entire system to complement that player's strengths. He'll also add some much needed size to your lefties, who are mostly smaller guys who can't bully their way through the bigger mobile defenders. He'll be a steal for you guys.

thanks for the analysis, gravedigger. Once I reminded myself that Taylor was a lefty, it got clear - ain't limiting Matthews shifts/touches, and you have a hard time limiting Shattler or the coach's boy as well.

hoping the big body can give back some of what they lost when Beirnes retired, and open up a bit more of an inside game for all the lefties.